The design and construction of articles of clothing for the human body has varied enormously in form and appearance; and typically is the result of a compromise between function and fashion. Thus, history has provided us with a broad variety of styled garments which were intended to protect the individual against the weather and an unpredictable environment. These include the basic articles of clothing we use today such as dresses, pants, coats, shirts, and intimate apparel; as well as outer covering garments such as overcoats, coveralls, cloaks, capes, and headgear of various kinds. In comparison, many cultures and societies have created fashionable garments which have come to represent and be associated with particular aspects or features of their race, nation, politics, or philosophy. Representative of such societal fashions are the toga, the sari, the poncho, the sarong, and the kimono. Each of these unique garments is as much a statement of the wearer's culture and civilization as they are a reflection of his need to protect himself from his environment.
It will also be appreciated that some articles of clothing are created to meet and satisfy a specific need or purpose. Thus, firemen wear protective coats and helmets; law enforcement personnel often wear bullet-proof vests; surgeons wear presterilized operating gowns; cowboys wear chaps; and classical ballerinas wear tutus. Convention has also served to dictate specific fashion for appearance sake such as tuxedos and tailcoats for semi-formal and formal evening wear. In most cases, however, an accommodation made between function and fashion gives best service.
Given the long and varied history of clothing, it is therefore incongruous and incredible what a man, woman, or child is expected to wear today when being examined by his physician or when he is admitted to the hospital for medical treatment on either an elective or emergency basis. Typically, the individual is asked to undress completely and is given a single garment to wear as best he can. This garment, conventionally termed a "hospital johnnie" or "johnnie gown", is merely one-half of a shrunken night shirt of the flimsiest material. Unless the individual is extraordinarily small in height and stature, this garment is insufficient to cover the body effectively. Typically, when the person slips his hands through the sleeves and pulls the cloth up towards his neck, the hemline of the garment commonly ends above the genital area and the person's back and buttocks often remain completely exposed to the ambient environment without any covering whatsoever. The person is thus compelled to clutch the garment with both hands, often wrapping his arms around himself in order to keep the garment ends from flapping open or falling off entirely. As a consequence, even after having donned and clutched this garment, the individual remains half-naked at best and is frequently an embarrassment to himself, if not to his neighbors.
It is useful here to recall that the hospital johnnie was intended to serve several important purposes. First, the person waiting for medical examination or treatment should not be encumbered or hampered by the multiple layers of clothing normally worn as street clothing or protective articles against inclement weather. All such clothing merely acts as physical barriers to the purpose of the medical examination or treatment. Second, the physician must have access to those parts of the body which require physical examination and/or treatment; nevertheless, there is no reason for the person to be totally nude when only one limb or portion of the torso is the focus or point of interest. Third, most persons wearing a hospital johnnie feel embarrassed sitting in the presence of another fully clothed person who is a complete stranger; and the individual's own standards of personal modesty deserve respect. Lastly, it is not unusual for the medical examination and/or treatment to involve articles, fluids, and other implements which sometimes cause an unavoidable release of fluids, creams, or other discharges in the immediate area of examination or treatment. The clothing worn at that moment thus frequently becomes spotted and/or soiled; and it is advantageous that a person's personal clothing not be subjected to such accidental spillage and soiling. All of these are good and valid reasons for wearing a protective garment other than the individual's personal clothing when the person is an outpatient either at the physician's office or in a hospital clinic setting.
Equally important and more revealing is the instance of the inpatient who has been admitted to the hospital on either an elective or emergency basis. The individual's own preferred night clothing for sleeping or lounging--typically nightgowns, pajamas, robes, and housecoats--is often unsuitable in maternity wards, in surgical situations, with intravenous administration tubing and devices, as well as with the commonplace plaster casts employed with bone fractures or during irregularities of the body such as diarrhea and incontinence. The person in these medical situations often needs multiple changes of clothing in a single day; and concomitantly would benefit from wearing a kind of clothing which facilitates intermittent examinations and access of the requisite body areas and limbs at any moment. Moreover, it is commonplace to see recovering and convalescent patients walking up and down the halls and corridors of a hospital or clinic as a form of both therapy and exercise for limited duration before again returning to bed for the next several hours. The need for effective protective clothing is thus greatest when the person is a hospital inpatient.
Nevertheless, despite these many varied and compelling reasons, the traditional johnnie gown with all its well recognized deficiencies and failures continues to be used routinely as the only available type of protective garment. As strange as it may seem in this highly sophisticated and technologically advanced age, there has been no improvement or successor to the hospital johnnie other than the form in which it was introduced many decades ago. Clearly, therefore, the need for an article of clothing which not only covers the body and limbs of the wearer but also provides access when needed to the covered body and limbs would be generally recognized and acknowledged as a major improvement and innovation in this art.